AXIS Capital Holdings Limited Principles for Sustainable Insurance - Annual Disclosure
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AXIS Capital Holdings Limited Principles for Sustainable Insurance – Annual Disclosure For the year-ended December 31, 2020 All data in this Principles for Sustainable Insurance (“PSI”) annual disclosure is as of, or f or the reporting period January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 unless otherwise noted.
ABOUT AXIS CAPITAL
AXIS Capital Holdings Limited (“AXIS Capital”), a Bermuda public limited liability company, provides a broad range of
specialty insurance and reinsurance solutions to its clients on a worldwide basis through its operating subsidiaries and
branch networks based in Bermuda, the United States, Europe, Singapore and Canada.
AXIS brings the sophistication of a top specialty insurer and global reinsurer and the agility of a f irm with entrepreneurial
roots. We write business from a position of leadership and relevance in our chosen markets. Our leadership is grounded
in our people and in our corporate culture, which encourages collaboration, diversity and innovation. A purpose-driven
organization, we strive to leave a positive imprint on the world through responsible business practices.
In 2020, AXIS became a signatory to the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (“UNEP-FI”)
Principles for Sustainable Insurance (“PSI”). The PSI provide a f ramework for the global insurance industry to address
environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) risks and opportunities. As a signatory to the PSI, AXIS is required to
provide an annual disclosure on the progress made in implementing the principles during the year, and we are proud to
provide our first PSI disclosure (“PSI Disclosure”).
In this PSI Disclosure, references to "AXIS Capital" refer to AXIS Capital Holdings Limited and references to “AXIS” "we",
"us", "our", the "Group" or the "Company" refer to AXIS Capital Holdings Limited and its direct and indirect subsidiaries
and branches.
PSI Disclosure Contents
TOPIC PAGE
About AXIS Capital 2
Principle 1 2
Principle 2 5
Principle 3 6
Principle 4 6
PRINCIPLE 1
PRINCIPLE 1 ACTIONS
We will embed in our decision-making Company Strategy and Initiatives
ESG issues relevant to our insurance
business. We strive to consider material ESG factors in our strategic planning and risk oversight process.
• Board oversight. The Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee oversees our corporate
citizenship and sustainability initiatives. Our Board, along with our Risk Committee, oversees the
risks and opportunities related to the Company’s climate change exposure and initiatives and
receives periodic reports relating to climate change as part of their standing agendas. During the
year, regular reports were provided to the committees and Board.
• Executive Committee oversight. The Executive Committee, which is comprised of our senior-most
executives, periodically discusses and reviews our corporate citizenship initiative. During fiscal
year 2020, the General Counsel provided a report to the Executive Committee, and in 2021, the
committee receives quarterly reports on our citizenship initiative.
• Employee Led Committees. AXIS has established employee-led committees to advance the
corporate citizenship strategy. These committees include:
• Corporate Citizenship Committee. The Corporate Citizenship Committee met regularly with
dedicated leads focusing on four strategic areas: (i) environment, (ii) diversity, equity and
inclusion, (iii) philanthropy and (iv) advocacy.
AXIS Capital Holdings Limited - Annual Disclosure Principles for Sustainable Insurance 2020 2PRINCIPLE 1 ACTIONS
• Climate Change Working Group. Our climate change working group met regularly during the
year, focusing specifically on climate-related risks. The climate change working group
coordinates with other internal working groups concerning climate -related risks. These
include, for example, (1) the environmental group which focuses on environment policy and
(2) our emerging risk working group, which facilitates and coordinates the identification and
management of emerging risks
• Diversity & Inclusion Council: Our diversity and inclusion council met regularly during the
year. The Council is designed to ensure that employees with diverse perspectives and
backgrounds can share their thoughts, ideas and recommendations. The Council is supported
by an ancillary group of D&I Advocates who actively engage and promote the work of the
Council.
• Philanthropy Committee. Our global philanthropy committee, which consists of employees
world-wide, met regularly during the year to discuss the Company’s global philanthropy
initiatives. In addition to the global philanthropy committee, local employee-led philanthropy
committees met regularly and organized virtual volunteering events and contributed to local
organizations.
Climate Risk - Risk Management/Underwriting and Operations
We recognize that climate-related risks are among the biggest threats to our planet today. To help
manage these risks, we assess and mitigate the environmental impact of our business and exposures
as well as our operations.
• Our Business and Exposures. We believe that (re)insurers have an important role to play in
mitigating climate risk, transitioning to a low-carbon economy and protecting our planet.
• Policy on Thermal Coal and Oil Sands. AXIS implemented a thermal coal and oil sands
policy, effective January 1, 2020, which limits our provision of (re)insurance to, or investment
in, new thermal coal plants or oil sands infrastructure or the companies that build, own or
operate such enterprises. Effective January 1, 2021, AXIS strengthened the policy to prohibit
any insurance coverage or investment in support of the exp loration, production or
transportation of oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The policy aims to
encourage environmentally responsible business practices among our current and
prospective insureds by, among other things, encouraging them to commit to mid- to long-
term transition plans away from thermal coal or oil sands business.
• Renewable Energy. As part of our commitment to transitioning to a low-carbon economy, we
were proud to continue to be a top global player in the renewable energy insurance space – a
line of business in which we continue to invest.
• Climate Risk Assessment. We continued to advance and monitor the latest science on
climate change through our Nat Cat Centre of Excellence, the AXIS Research Center at the
University of Illinois, our global climate-change working group and local modeling teams. We
also model and review peril regions most likely to be affected by climate risk.
• Climate Risk Incorporated into Enterprise Risk Management (“ERM”) Framework. As part of
our overall ERM framework, we have put in place a distinct climate change risk management
framework to create a holistic approach for managing climate -related risks.
• Climate Change Working Group. A climate change working group has been established to
focus specifically on climate-related risks. This group oversees and coordinates
implementation of our climate change risk management framework. In 2020, the climate
change working group completed an assessment report of climate risks across our product
lines, and we are currently working to enhance our climate assessment capability, extending
to transition and liability.
• Our Operations. During the year, we completed a comprehensive assessment of our 2019
greenhouse gas emissions and plan to use the results of our assessment to inform our strategy to
mitigate our environmental footprint. We were proud in 2020 to achieve Excellent BREEAM status
for our London office and to open our Alpharetta, Georgia office which has applied for Platinum
LEED status.
A discussion of the Company’s approach to incorporating environmental risk into: (1) the underwriting
process for individual contracts and (2) the management of firm-level risks and capital adequacy is
included in our report aligned with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (“SASB”) (See SASB
Code - 450a.3).
AXIS Capital Holdings Limited - Annual Disclosure Principles for Sustainable Insurance 2020 3PRINCIPLE 1 ACTIONS
Product and Service Development
As a responsible corporate citizen, AXIS believes it is important to incorporate incentives that
encourage smarter decisions regarding health, safety and environmental responsibility. A discussion of
these incentives is included in our SASB report (See SASB Code - 410b.2).
A key accomplishment in the year included the growth of the renewable energy business. Our global
renewable energy business unit has grown its gross written premiums each year for the last three years
(FY 2020, FY 2019 and FY 2018). For additional information, refer to our SASB report (See SASB
Code 410b.1).
Investment Management
AXIS primarily follows an outsourced investment management model. Therefore, its primary
engagement on ESG factors in its investment management processes and strategies involves the
evaluation of the manner in which AXIS’ core fixed income managers integrate ESG factors into
investment decisions and ongoing issuer monitoring and engagement. In 2020, this evaluation was
taken into account in AXIS’ manager selection and annual manager scorecard process.
In addition, our thermal coal and oil sands policy stipulates that AXIS will not make new investments in
companies that generate 30% or more of their revenues from thermal coal mining, tha t generate 30% or
more of their power from thermal coal, or that hold more than 20% of their reserves in oil sands. On
January 1, 2021, we expanded this policy to prohibit underwriting and investment in oil and gas projects
in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
For additional information, refer to our SASB report (See SASB Code 410a.2).
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
We see diversity, equity and inclusion as a strategic imperative that is core to our business and our
culture. We believe that encouraging a wide range of experiences, backgrounds and perspectives and
ensuring equal treatment for all makes AXIS a more rewarding place to work, enables us to attract
talented teammates, enriches our perspectives and makes us stronger as a global organization. Below
are strategies and initiatives undertaken in fiscal year 2020 to further the advancement of our diverse,
equitable and inclusive culture:
• Diversity & Inclusion Council: We established a Diversity & Inclusion Council comprised of
global employees representing a full spectrum of experiences and viewpoints. The Council
was established to ensure that employees with diverse perspectives and backgrounds can
share their thoughts, ideas and recommendations. The Council is supported by an ancilla ry
group of D&I Advocates who actively engage and promote the work of the Council.
• Educational Initiatives: AXIS is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion educational
initiatives and offers them through varying mediums. Initiatives included:
• Mandatory unconscious bias training for all employees;
• Monthly "knowledge tests" on various diversity, equity and inclusion topics for all
employees;
• Informational toolkits serving as quick reference guides;
• The establishment of an anti-racism resource center and
• A global forum on racial justice and equality with an external moderator and panel of AXIS
colleagues.
• Recruitment: We continued to broaden our recruiting strategies to identify, source and
develop a diverse pipeline of candidates. Initiatives included:
• Establishing and enhancing existing relationships with diverse universities and external
professional organizations;
• Participating in diverse apprenticeship/internship programs in Bermuda, U.K. and U.S.;
• Further building out our internship program with strong diverse representation;
• Providing recruitment training and manager coaching with a focus on enhancing
managers’ effectiveness at recruiting diverse candidates; and
• Ensuring management succession plans have diverse representation.
• Advocacy: AXIS participates in Dive In, an annual insurance industry event hosted by Lloyd’s
of London to promote diversity, equity and inclusion within the global (re)insurance
community. AXIS supported the event on a local level in 2020 and became a global sponsor
of the festival in 2021.
AXIS Capital Holdings Limited - Annual Disclosure Principles for Sustainable Insurance 2020 4PRINCIPLE 1 ACTIONS
• Disclosure: We believe transparency will play a critical role in driving action by shining light on
the areas where we can increase underrepresented populations in our workforce. In 2020,
AXIS participated in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index (the "GEI"), an index of public
companies committed to disclosing their efforts to achieve gender equality, to build greater
parity between genders within our organization. This participation, in turn, earned AXIS
inclusion in the 2021 GEI. In addition, the Company’s annual re port and proxy statement
disclosed employee demographics relating to global gender and U.S. race information .
PRINCIPLE 2
PRINCIPLE 2 ACTIONS
We will work together with our clients Clients
and business partners to raise
awareness of environmental, social AXIS provides ESG information and resources to clients through a variety of channels, including:
and governance issues, manage risk
and develop solutions. • Our website (www.axiscapital.com)
• Our social media channels (LinkedIn and Twitter)
• Our press releases
• Educational presentations on renewable energy insurance (ex. wildfire, tropical cyclones,
flood)
In addition, AXIS believes it is important to incorporate incentives that encourage smarter decisions
regarding health, safety and environmental responsibility. A discussion of these incentives is included
in our SASB report (See SASB Code - 410b.2).
Research
The NatCat Centre of Excellence, the AXIS Research Center at the University of Illinois, the AXIS
climate change working group and local modeling teams lead research on climate change.
AXIS also invests in ongoing research on climate change in partnership with the University of Illinois.
Actions included:
• Funding Fellowships. Funding fellowships for the Office of Risk Management & Insurance
Research at the University of Illinois to study the critical risks faced by global populations and
address the implications for the (re)insurance industry. Research undertaken by these fellows
includes assessing cyber risk, developing a high-resolution risk analysis of infrastructure
assets and addressing various climate risk initiatives, such as a comprehensive database of
agriculturally relevant extreme weather events, a national-scale evaluation of the healthcare
costs impacts of exposure to wildfire smoke, and merging models to compute the social cost
of carbon.
• Whitepapers. Collaborating with experts from Verisk’s catastrophe modelling arm, AIR
Worldwide, and scholars from the Brookings Institution to produce and promote whitepapers
on the impact of climate change. Prior publications address: U.S. Hurricane Risks released
January 2021 and U.S. Corn Yields released April 2021.
Industry Advocacy
We advocate for issues that reflect our values and are important to our company, employees and
communities. Examples included:
• Climate Change. AXIS is a member of organizations focused on climate risk, such as The
Geneva Association and the Insurance Development Forum (IDF), a public-private
partnership of the United Nations, the World Bank and members of the insurance industry.
• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. AXIS participates in Dive In, an annual insurance industry event
hosted by Lloyd’s of London to promote diversity, equity and inclusion within the global
(re)insurance community. AXIS supported the event on a local level in 2020 and became a
global sponsor of the festival in 2021.
AXIS Capital Holdings Limited - Annual Disclosure Principles for Sustainable Insurance 2020 5PRINCIPLE 3
PRINCIPLE 3 ACTIONS
We will work together with Engagement
governments, regulators and other key
stakeholders to promote widespread AXIS is engaged in ESG-related activities with trade associations, industry organizations, and
action across society on educational institutions including the following:
environmental, social and governance
issues. • Trade Associations.
• Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR) – AXIS President and CEO
served as Chair through December 2020
• Industry organizations.
• Insurance Development Forum – Steering Committee member for the Sovereign &
Humanitarian Solutions Working Group; AXIS President and CEO serves on the IDF
Steering Committee
• The Geneva Association – member
• Educational institutions
• University of Illinois Gies College of Business Office of Risk Management & Insurance
Research
Philanthropy
Our philanthropy strategy continues to provide support to organizations that advance a number of
causes. Initiatives from 2020 included:
• In fiscal year 2020, AXIS donated $1 million to support COVID-19 relief efforts, including
$100,000 to support underserved communities that have been particularly impacted by the
pandemic.
• Each year we host a Global Giving Rally, a period of time when colleagues can use paid time
off to volunteer at local organizations. We also offer one additional paid day off to volunteer at
any point during the year. In 2020, we shifted the initiative to a virtual setting.
• As part of our investment in communities, AXIS sponsors a Matching Gifts Program. In fiscal
year 2020, AXIS’ combined philanthropic activity supported over 570 non-profit organizations.
Press
Using our voice to speak up on a variety of ESG topics important to our company and industry,
including but not limited to:
• “AXIS Insurance keeps diversity & inclusion at heart of business” on YouTalk Insurance with
CEO US Division AXIS Insurance Carlton Maner (April 2021)
• “ESG: Companies can ‘do well by doing good’” on the Royal Gazette with President and CEO
Albert Benchimol (Oct 11, 2020)
• “Modelling the future” on The Insurer with Ellissa Cavaciuti-Wishart (September 2020)
PRINCIPLE 4
PRINCIPLE 4 ACTIONS
We will demonstrate accountability and Annual Disclosures and Reporting Frameworks
transparency in regularly disclosing
publicly our progress in implementing the AXIS assesses, measures and monitors our progress in managing ESG issues and proactively and
Principles. annually provides the following reports:
• SASB report
• UN Global Compact - Communication on Progress report
• UNEP FI PSI Annual Disclosure
AXIS also discusses ESG initiatives on its website, along with selected public filings.
AXIS Capital Holdings Limited - Annual Disclosure Principles for Sustainable Insurance 2020 6Important Legal Information This report contains information about AXIS as of December 31, 2020. The inclusion of information in this report should not be construed as a characterization regarding the materiality or financial impact of that information. Please refer to our periodic and other filings with the SEC, which are accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and our website at www.axiscapital.com, for additional information concerning AXIS Capital, including information which is more current than that contained in this report. This report should be read in conjunction with our filings with the SEC and the other inf ormation we publish. In addition, this report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements, other than statements of historical facts included in this report, including statements regarding our estimates, beliefs, expectations, intentions, strategies or projections are f orward-looking statements. We intend these forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for f orward-looking statements in the United States federal securities laws. In some cases, these statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "may", "should", "could", "anticipate", "estimate", "expect", "plan", "believe", "predict", "potential", "intend" or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts, and are based on current expectations, estimates and projections, and various assumptions, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and beyond management's control. These statements include, among other things, statements about our product offerings, catastrophe losses and modeling. Results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by f orward-looking statements. Factors that can cause results to differ materially include those described under “Forward Looking Statements” in AXIS Capital’s most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Qs filed with the SEC and available on our website. AXIS Capital undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. AXIS Capital Holdings Limited - Annual Disclosure Principles for Sustainable Insurance 2020 7
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